In Media Rest - 2025-09-28
Videogames
FALLSTRUKTUR
Still a mainstay "I have an hour to kill" game for me, though less so - I have about 9 hours last two weeks. That was enough to reclaim my world record a couple of times and push it down to 36.98. We'll need some insane consistency or new strats to go any further.
1000xResist
Started on this after seeing it mentioned a bunch lately, having missed it when it was new. Only a few hours in, but it is incredible affecting. A lot of that will be from my partner being from Hong Kong and expressing related feelings, but also it's just incredibly well put together - the first hour is astonishingly atmospheric.
It's also on a 30% discount right now, so worth taking the plunge.
Books
Proto - Laura Spinney
Mentioned having read this recently, so that post contains most of my thoughts. Also looked around for the more academic view, and this guy seemed to think it's shit so take what you will from it!
The World Before Us - Tom Higham
More prehistory stuff - really catching my attention lately. Got put onto this reading about Denny, a person reduced to fragments of bone 90,000 years ago but identified by modern techniques to be a first generation Neanderthal-Denisovan. Higham was part of the research team involved in that discovery, and writes about the current understanding (as of 2021) of the origin of modern humans and the fate of our nearest cousins.
"As of 2021" is important there, I'm 4 chapters in and the stuff on Denisovans is already hugely out of date - it's incredible how fast research is progressing on them.
Online
Sumo - September Basho
Big fortnite for the big boys! Hoshoryu seems fully back from injury and had an excellent basho, while Onosato looks as strong as ever - he looked even bigger thank normal to my eye. I won't spoil the result in case you watch the NHK highlights, but it was interesting to the end.
Trackmania - XPEvo LAN
Really enjoyed watching this. Trackmania has a bunch of competitive formats and this tourney used one of the more standard ones - something the pros watching the final didn't love. I found Granady's watch party the best way to watch most of the time, a good mix of background chat about the event and actual commentary.